CHILLIWACK, British Columbia – Dozens of NHL scouts and NCAA staffers flocked to Chilliwack last week to take in the annual BCHL Showcase. With ‌18 games across four days, this showcase represents a one-stop shop for evaluating 2023 and 2024 NHL Draft eligible talent and potential college recruits.

The BCHL, a Canadian Junior A league, acts as a feeder league for college rosters across the NCAA because of its status as “amateur hockey” in the eyes of college hockey's decision-makers. This is opposed to players who go the CHL route and forego their NCAA eligibility because they're seen as having signed professional contracts.

This is an attractive development route for players who not only get to attend highly accredited universities on scholarships but also reap the benefits of cutting-edge facilities and a more flexible development path that could last well into their 20s.

NCAA teams come to the event with the goal of filling out their rosters with new commits. The BCHL boasts 410 alumni playing in NCAA hockey in the 2022-23 season, and the league even boasted in 2021-22 that 56 percent of their players make it to college hockey.

With most of the players in the showcase uncommitted, the stakes for these regular season games are inordinately high — their futures literally depend on these performances. Let's see who rose to the occasion.